Total electric power to grid [MWe]

Hi Francisco,

The "Total electric power to grid" is the output of the power cycle before the "System Availability" losses on the System Control page are applied. By default, there is a 4% system availability loss, which explains the difference between the variables you list.

I agree that this is confusing. We will fix this for a future version of SAM.

Best regards,
Paul.

Hi Mike,

Those three values are all in AC kW. "Grid curtailment" and "grid interconnect" refer to the inputs on the Grid Limits page. The outputs are intended to show when power is lost due to either of those.

Grid curtailment limits apply in individual time steps, so the input is an array of hourly or subhourly time series values.

The grid interconnection limit is a single value that applies throughout the year. Its input is a single value.

These inputs are intended to model operational limits to the system's output imposed by external factors such as grid outages and grid capacity limits.

Here's how SAM applies those values in each time step:

1. Calculate the output of the system, called "system power before grid interconnect."

2. Apply the interconnection limit to calculate "system power before grid curtailment."

3. Apply curtailment to calculate "system power generated," which represents the power delivered to the grid.

The result is that "system power generated" in a given time step should never exceed either grid curtailment in that time step or the interconnection limit. If both a grid interconnection limit and curtailment apply in a given time step, system power generated should be equal to or less than the smaller of the two.

Best regards,
Paul.